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Wednesday, December 13, 2017

So, 2018 will see me collaborating with Robert on a feature-length, chronological documentary of The Cure’s history from the 1970s via present day to the future. Robert himself will tell the story and this will work alongside other events for the band’s 40-year celebration.

The film to which I will bring my own style of jiggery-pokery will use as well as 'old favourites' a cornucopia of material from Robert’s collection which has never been seen before: Super-8; interviews; bootlegs; rare performances; behind-the-scenes, blah. Updates ’as and when’.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

THE CURE will be celebrating 40 imaginary years on Saturday 7th July 2018 with a 120min headline show at BST Hyde Park, London. Tickets on sale 9am Friday 15th December 2017. Presale is 9am TODAY 12th December.https://t.co/gHw1NfahWr - the password is IMAGINARY.
SEE YOU THERE!!! pic.twitter.com/RbWJLeK4iY

From the official site: "A panoply of fabulous artists will join the band on the day, including Interpol, Goldfrapp, Editors, Ride, Slowdive and The Twilight Sad, with many many more yet to be announced…"

Sunday, December 10, 2017

So, 50 boxes of ‘stuff’ has just arrived at mine. Just peeked and apart from dust they seem to be filled with what looks like films, photographs, memorabilia. They go by the year. Hm. Can’t wait to get cracking, though might take me a while. I can feel Christmas is nearly here.

I'll cut the cryptic crap soon, certainly before Christmas, but wanted to hint a little bit about next year's plans on The Cure project because I am excited! Be great to work with my old chums, as we go so far back. Going to be a bumper year for the 40th anniversary!

Friday, December 1, 2017

As with Lol, and in fairness to Tim, he didn't say this was Cure related. He also has other projects he's working on. But you can't blame any of us for thinking what we're all thinking. :)

Update (Dec. 1st. 2017): Tim now confirms that one of his projects IS Cure related!

Being the kind-hearted person I am, I can confirm one of my upcoming projects next year is with The Cure with whom I have worked since 1981. This will be with the full participation of Robert. Updates when I can, but suffice to say it will be a 40th anniversary project.

Thursday, November 30, 2017

So, just to make it clear when I said some wild ideas are happening next year I was referring to my own projects. I’m sorry if I helped sow any confusion it was not my intention.As to 40th-anniversary stuff? It would be nice but so far Robert and I have not talked about that.

A new line of designer clothing, featuring Cure graphics and authorized & approved by Robert, will be released today. Prices will range between $12 and $798. On sale now here, and at Dover Street Market NY, London & Singapore, Commes Des Garcons Korea, & Slam Jam. They will also be available at Noah Clubhouse in Tokyo on Dec. 1st.

Update: If you are interested in any of the items, you might want to act fast, as some sizes are already sold out.

From Dazed: How a heartfelt email to frontman Robert Smith turned into a new capsule collection

“I started listening to everything I could get my hands on,” says Brendon Babenzien. The designer is describing how he became obsessed with The Cure after an older, cooler friend – as is always the case – played a song for him at a house party in 1984. The moment converted an impressionable Babenzien into a lifelong fan. Now, through his New York menswear label Noah, he has collaborated with the English band on a capsule collection, set to release in-store and online at Noah NYC and Tokyo as well as at London’s Dover Street Market this Thursday.

“As soon as I was calling the shots in my own company, it was really the first music collaboration I could think of that would really make me happy, that I could be really proud of,” the designer says of the collaboration, which sees a host of Noah staples, such as graphic t-shirts, hoodies and Harringtons emblazoned with versions of The Cure’s iconic cover art. “What I knew of Robert Smith, historically, I would have guessed that he would say no to something like this. So I wrote this heartfelt email, kind of explaining who I was and why this would be important to me – assuring him that we would do our best to do the right thing with it and it wasn’t going to be this huge commercial project.” To Babenzien’s surprise, Smith quickly got on board. “We also wanted to expose a younger audience to the band – anyone who hasn’t listened to their music before, we’re hoping that this will bring them to it a little more.”

Babenzien grew up in East Islip, a picturesque but nondescript town somewhere between Montauk and the Hamptons. Aesthetically different but similar in feeling to Crawley – the town in West Sussex that gave birth to The Cure – it inspired the same sense of angst-meets-ennui in Babenzien that was a hallmark of the British outfit’s early work. “Where I grew up, it’s beautiful and I love it now as an adult,” he says. “But when you’re a kid it just feels mundane because you can’t access any of the things that interest you. The small group of people that I was friends with that felt out of place where we were from, the music just kind of made sense to us.”

Through an outsider mentality and rigorous aesthetic approach, The Cure’s Robert Smith tapped into that, creating work that both captured and transcended the bleak banality of British suburbia to resonate with pretty much any teenager in a pre-internet era who felt disconnected or different. Babenzien was one of them, and that love of the band has stayed with him in the years that have passed since.

"Cure vocalist Robert Smith was 28 when he started answering questions from his fans in the band’s series of newsletters The Cure News which published its first issue in 1987. During its run, Smith replied to hand-written inquiries sent in about his mythical hair and his aversion to flying—all while slyly avoiding answering a request for his home address. In later newsletters, Smith lets loose on The Smiths/Morrissey and rarely avoids answering intimate questions from fans which run the gamut from amusing to stalker-level weirdness. The vintage Q&As also chronicle Smith’s commentary as it relates to his relationship with his childhood pal, Cure drummer and keyboardist Lol Tolhurst until Lol’s departure from The Cure in 1989.

I combed through every newsletter put out between 1987 to 1991 in search of Smith’s most quotable-quotes—which, I must say, was a shit-ton of fun. I’ve posted loads of Smith’s answers to his fans queries below in the order of their chronological appearance in the various newsletters. I’ve left his answers just as he wrote them, without capitalization and British spellings which in some cases makes them all the more endearing. So without further delay, here’s Robert Smith being very Robert Smith-y while he responds to his fans."

"But if luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity, Cheon's been laying groundwork for such discoveries his whole life. In the backroom at RS94109, we speak about his undying love for the dark, romantic '80s music that forms the backbone of his label's aesthetic.

"I didn't have the happiest teenage years," he says. "I was overweight, I was made fun of, I was gay and in the closet. I had girlfriends that were into goth music music and The Cure—I think hearing that when I was 15—it's angsty, it's sad, it's emotive, and I was all of these things. If you hear Robert Smith singing about Disintegration or Pornography and how it doesn't matter if we all die, it's like, 'This like a rallying call for what's going on inside my head.'"

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Siouxsie and The Banshees were one of the first post-punk bands to make it big, forming in 1976, already releasing their second album Join Hands in September of 1979.

During the tour for said album however, the Banshees’ guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris (both now referred to as The Blackheads) quit the group, leaving founders Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin scrambling to find replacements for the tour.

Slits percussionist Peter Edward Clarke aka Budgie was recruited on drums, becoming a permanent member of the band—but Severin and Sioux still had a hard time enlisting a guitarist.

Robert Smith of The Cure decided to offer his services as his group were already the support band on tour in support of Join Hands.

After the tour, Robert returned to full time duties with his own band, and Sioux and Severin then had a proper audition, and Sioux and Severin recruited Magazine and Visage guitarist John McGeoch to join the band, which was the perfect arrangement until the departure of John McGeoch from the Banshees after suffering a nervous breakdown at a gig in Madrid.

Robert Smith was recruited a second time into Wonderland to join his hand on guitar as a Banshee, now becoming a full time member, as Smith was still recovering from the emotional anguish of The Cure album “Pornography” (which led to Simon Gallup leaving The Cure, a major reason for the band’s hiatus).

My cosy chat with Adam Buxton published today. Admittedly, I talk fast. VERY FAST. But, hey, you get double the information in half the time. Anyway, we discuss L.S.D., Neil Young, David Bowie, and a few other things. Enjoy! https://t.co/yS8O5klbN2

Muzikalia ran a story today about possible plans to celebrate The Cure's 40th anniversary in 2018. Just your usual speculation that we all do at the end/start of the year, but what caught my eye was a tweet from Lol. Seems like some "wild ideas" really ARE happening in 2018.

Update (Nov. 26th, 2017): I know we've all had fun speculating on these posts from Reeves and Lol, but please keep in mind that they both have their own projects, and not everything is Cure related. Lol could be speaking about his 2nd book, his graphic novel that he's working on with Pearl, his Cured movie adaptation, or that studio project he was working on with Pearl. It could be anything.

Also, there's this problem of Lol & Robert not having had any contact in quite some time. From a recent Metro interview:

"What was Robert Smith's reaction?I gave him the first copy of the book about six months before its release. He was on tour, very busy, and we have not had any contact since. But I'm sure I would have known if he did not like it."

So just don't get your hopes up too high. Even if there ARE major Cure plans in the works, we know how quickly they can change.

And one more thing, we all know how much Robert loathes social media/"The fucking internet", and the leaking of any info before he posts it himself, so would Lol & Reeves really post these things if they're Cure related?

For me, the biggest Cure news while the blog was inactive was the inclusion of 'Six Different Ways' in the new film adaptation of Stephen King's 'It'. Being a huge King fan, and 'It' being my favorite King book, and one of my favorite books overall, I was stunned and so happy when that scene appeared! You have no idea how much restraint it took me to not post the above tweet in the middle of the film. :)

They put together some Spotify playlists for the characters in the film, and of course The Losers' Club have some Cure on their lists. Beverly has 'Just Like Heaven', Bill has 'Pictures of You', and Richie has 'Lovesong' & 'In Between Days'.

Director Andy Muschietti spoke with Film.it, and was asked about the scene:

"Let's talk about The Cure and the song you chose: Six Different Ways. It's funny how one can perfectly relate it to the six guys in the movie ...

Oh yes and they talk about their relationship with Beverly. When I noticed this, we shot a scene where Robert Smith's voice replaced that of our actress Sophia Lillis. I liked it a lot, but we had to give it up because, according to some, the audience was confused."

Some mentions of the scene from various articles and reviews:

"But then, of course, there are the kids. After one scene of nightmare gore that owes a lot to Johnny Depp’s kill in the original “Nightmare on Elm Street” — “It” for sure earns its R-rating — the group is forced to scrub down a bathroom and wash it free of blood. It’s a grisly scene but it’s set to the poppy bounce of the Cure’s “Six Different Ways,” a smart cue that lets you know the filmmakers know and respect the time and the era in which they’re working. It makes the film come alive, and like the best parts of “It,” it has nothing to do with that silly clown." - The Detroit News

"And the restraint allows the two big songs used in the film to have a greater impact. The Cure’s ‘Six Different Ways’ plays when the Losers clean up Beverly’s blood-soaked bathroom, a sight only the group can see thanks to Pennywise. The bond between the Losers forms as they scrub retro-tiled floors and agree that Pennywise is the real deal. And nothing binds outcasts like The Cure." - Junkee

"It even includes a montage set to The Cure’s “Six Different Way” (one of the best uses of the song I’ve seen in a film)." - We Are Movie Geeks

"Placing the film in 1989 is an interesting choice. Those expecting a “Stranger Things” experience where the eccentricities of the decade take center stage will be somewhat disappointed that the references aren’t nearly as overt. They are still there, but more in the background. I’m particularly fond of the way The Cure’s “Six Different Ways” is used for a rather bloody montage. The tone of the song is seemingly inappropriate, but it works because there is a lighter undercurrent at play here. These are kids, no matter how vulgar or inappropriate they come across, it is their collective innocence that defines them."- KUTV

"Still, Muschietti avoids realism so that he can easily shift the tone back toward an observant human comedy. Sometimes the juxtaposition is brazen: the Losers team up to clean Beverly’s bloody bathroom while The Cure’s playful “Six Different Ways” provides the soundtrack." - Washington City Paper

"Muschietti shares King’s love of period-appropriate rock music, though he doesn’t always use it appropriately: One potentially blood-curdling scene is bizarrely neutered by its use of the Cure’s “Six Different Ways.” - Variety

"For the sensitive teens of the '80s, few bands could encapsulate the swirling angst of adolescence more completely than the Cure, and the group's ascension to mainstream status really got going with 1985's The Head on the Door. Boosted by the hit single "In Between Days," which reflected the band's evolving style as well as frontman Robert Smith's growing creative control, the record launched a thousand swooning mixtapes — and while music was probably the furthest thing from Bill and Bev's minds during the bloody aftermath of It's visit to her bathroom, the Door track "Six Different Ways" is still a suitably bittersweet soundtrack for their shared moment." - Diffuser

Sorry for this very long post, but I love the film (saw it 6 times, of course, in theatres!), love that The Cure are now a part of the highest grossing horror film of all time, and that the band (and a Cure song not usually used in films) got so much exposure!

Anyway, if you haven't seen 'It', it is still playing in some theatres, and will be released digitally on Dec. 19th, and on DVD/Blu-Ray on Jan. 9th.

From the Vault: On Nov. 16, 1984, the band visited Washington, D.C., with a mix of new material and radio favorites.

The Cure had been gradually building their U.S. fan base when they embarked on their third American tour to promote their 1984 album, The Top. On Nov. 16, 1984, the band visited the Ontario Theatre in Washington, D.C., where they played a mix of new material and the favorites that had made them instant icons in England.

Coming off the success of hits like “Let’s Go To Bed” and “Boys Don’t Cry,” Robert Smith and Co. had finally come to the point where they could take The Cure’s eccentric, characteristically dark sound and combine it with a more radio-friendly approach. At the time, Smith was also playing with Siouxsie and the Banshees, but musically, his true home was always with The Cure—a fact made more than apparent on this recording. The band would ultimately go through a number of musical and personal upheavals, and even though The Top wasn’t their most warmly received album, this was a fruitful period for The Cure. This show offers an impeccable live recording of one of the ‘80s biggest groups in their prime.

Thursday, November 16, 2017

The CoF blog is officially back as of today, and it feels so good to be
updating here again. Thank you all for your kindness and support. It means
the world to me. Here's to better days ahead and a ton of updates in
2018.

Over the next day or two, I will be adding a bunch of the stuff from the Summer/Autumn that didn't get posted here, only on Twitter. And going forward, this site will be back to normal.

Reeves released a new live album, 'Imaginary Friends Live', on October 1st. You can buy a copy at Bandcamp.

"Imaginary Friends Live was recorded during one night's performance at
The Family Wash/Garage Coffee in Nashville, Tennessee by the rock trio
Reeves Gabrels and His Imaginary Friends. The band features Reeves
Gabrels (The Cure, David Bowie) on lead vocals and lead guitar, with
Kevin Hornback on bass and Marc Pisapia on drums and harmony vocals."

You’ve played so many shows and worked with so many incredible people during your career. What have been some of the most memorable moments as a musician?

RG: I have been extremely lucky in that almost every day on the road or in the studio has offered some little gift that sticks in my memory.

Any day writing songs with David Bowie was memorable, funny, educational and entertaining.
Here's one recent and moving moment to stand in for all. After I joined The Cure (in 2012) we did a tour of South America and Mexico the following spring. Our show in Mexico City happened to be on Robert Smith's birthday. Right before we were to take the stage, there was an earthquake. Within minutes of the first roll of the ground, and the sounds of surprise (and fear) from the crowd, and once it was clear that there was no structural risk to the stage or stadium, we decided instantly to play the show. That experience was memorable in terms of the size of the stadium, and how much it meant to the audience that we simply came out and carried on to play the music. We played over 4 hours, as a thank you to them.

Reeves Gabrels joined The Cure in 2012 and is also known for his partnership with David Bowie from 1987 through 1999. A co-founder of the rock band Tin Machine featuring David Bowie, Tony Sales, and Hunt Sales, Gabrels went on to work closely with Bowie as a guitarist and co-writer for Outside (1995) and as a guitarist, co-writer, and co-producer for Earthling (1997) and Hours (1999). Gabrels also served as Bowie’s guitarist and music director across a dozen years of touring, including Bowie’s tour with Nine Inch Nails and the legendary rock icon’s 50th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden.

In 2017, Gabrels released his sixth album, Imaginary Friends Live, which sees the guitarist and vocalist supported by a collection of his superb musical colleagues. In addition to his fruitful solo career, Gabrels has previously released two improvisatory guitar-duo albums—one with Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe fame and the other with David Tronzo who currently teaches at Boston’s Berklee College of Music—and composes film, television, and video-game soundtracks. A sought-after collaborator, he has written, performed, and recorded with musicians in genres from heavy metal to hip-hop to electronica to jazz.

The legendary band appeared with the late comedian on his sitcom back in 1993: “Mum!”

If you’re of a certain age, you were probably gutted to hear of the death of comedian Sean Hughes yesterday (16 October), aged just 51.

Aside from his stand-up career and his long tenure as a team captain on the BBC’s Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Hughes also had a Channel 4 sitcom called, not unreasonably, Sean’s Show.

Running for two series between 1992 and 1993, the programme was a surreal version of a sitcom, as Hughes was aware he was in a TV show, aware of the audience, had conversations with a talking spider called Elvis, listened to The Smiths and housed a group of Bosnian refugees in his spare room, who just watched TV.

The final episode aired on 29 December 1993 and concerned Sean’s discovery that he was adopted. As he searches for his long-lost mother, he spots a familiar face in the pub. Watch the clip for the bizarre revelation.

The love-in between The Cure and Sean Hughes continued as the comedian later appeared with fellow laff-maker Rob Newman (of The Mary Whitehouse Experience fame) in the video for the band’s bizarre single, The 13th.

“If I were to try and list the albums that changed my life I would be
talking to you forever,” he laughs, remembering which ones they'd obsess
over. The Cure were and remain an immense source of inspiration for
him. “It's hard to pick one record by that band,” he says. “But I would
say that Robert Smith's influence on me is pretty clear to anyone who
has heard me sing my songs.” Elsewhere he cites 24 Hour Revenge Therapy by Jawbreaker, and everything by R.E.M., Radiohead and The Beatles. “But while Jonny Greenwood is my single favorite guitar player,” he says of the former, “it is Fugazi that I regard as the most innovative band of all time.”

“I like ‘A Forest’. It’s a great fucking song. They’re a great band. I remember when everyone else was listening to disco and I was getting into The Cure. I guess I resist popular culture just a pinch and look for the edges.”

It’s been an unbelievable 40 years since iconic musician and
singer Robert Smith took on the role of frontman for his school band The
Easy Cure.

This group of friends had been gigging locally but struggled to find
the right singer until Smith stepped up in September 1977 and he hasn’t
stepped down since.

In fact this much-loved group (renamed the more familiar The Cure in
’78) have consistently released new material and continued to perform
live for the past four decades.

However, despite inspiring a Gothic generation and enjoying a few
commercial bursts (including the ubiquitous The Love Cats and Friday I’m
In Love) this prolific group have slipped a little under the popular
radar.

Which is probably where they like it.

But for the global army of fans who have kept faith all these years, a Cure gig is still the best night out of the year.

Think three euphoric dancing hours of familiar hits, forgotten favourites and all the feels.
We pore over the extensive back catalogue, stuffed full of gems applicable to any situation or emotion.

Whether you want to laugh, cry, fall in love or dance wildly, there’s a track for that.

I've heard you care a lot about the drumming of Lol Tolhurst of The Cure. One of my all time favourite albums is Pornography
by The Cure. What a terrifying album, and I'm a massive nerd about his
drumming [goes into long but precise description of The Cure's early
drum sound is achieved]. When he left the group I was broken-hearted.
During a specific era of my life, The Cure and The Smiths held two very
different but very important polar feelings for me.

You're clearly an Anglophile. How far back can you trace this?
Between the age of 13 and 16 I liked The Clash, Bowie, Echo And The
Bunnymen, The Cure, The Smiths, Sisters Of Mercy, Joy Division and New
Order. Between 1983 and 1986 most of these bands were big in Britain but
were still very, very underground in the US so would play smaller
venues. And that overlapped really densely with some of the most
important years of my life. Then when I was 16 I had a school trip to
England. I fully expected to get off the plane and step into punk rock
heaven, where everyone was going to be wearing long trench coats and
have crazy hair. I didn't know anything about lad culture or how
intensely conservative Britain was at that time. When I got here I was
like… "WHOA… OK, now I get it. The Smiths and The Cure were born from
how they looked totally not being OK in mainstream British culture." It was a great trip—very important—but it was also a real wake up call.

Folds has no problem slipping in covers. His cover of
The Cure's "In Between Days" is a fan favorite. Robert Smith, who wrote
the song, enjoys Folds version.

"It's a great
song," Folds said. "I've always liked that song and that album ('Head on
the Door'). Robert Smith really liked my version a lot. The interesting
thing is that he was being urged to let recording artists cover songs
for a Cure tribute album and from what I hear he wasn't crazy about the
idea. I'm told my version of 'In Between Days' changed his mind about
that. His approval of my version of his song is the highlight of my
career."

Goth is synonymous with excess—too much echo, too much feeling, too much eyeliner. But “A Forest,” off 1980’s spellbinding Seventeen Seconds, is a masterpiece of minimalism. It is a world away from so many of the band’s other signature efforts: the spiky, sprightly post-punk of Boys Don’t Cry, the druggy dolor of Pornography, the rococo swirl of Disintegration. Composed around a four-note synth part, with bass and guitar counterpoints twirling like vines, it follows a steady motorik groove that’s evocative of train travel; the reverb on the snare feels like it’s going backward and forward at the same time, which only adds to the sense that it could go on forever (a goal they would inch closer to, a year later, with the nearly 30-minute “Carnage Visors”). Deliciously repetitive, “A Forest” stretches from horizon to horizon, bleak as winter branches against a dull grey sky. –Philip Sherburne

I’m sure that certain albums appearing on this list make little to no sense to other music fans or critics but part of the idea is to reiterate the fact that music is very much a personal thing. The songs and albums that influence us may come at different times or decades of our lives than others. Hence why out of all the amazing albums The Cure have put out over the years, it’s Bloodflowers that makes my list.

Don’t get me wrong, Bloodflowers is a great album but it definitely isn’t Disintegration. The main reason I have Bloodflowers on this list is it’s the album that finally convinced me that buying an album by The Cure was worth the money.

My first encounter with the music of The Cure was when “Friday I’m in Love” hit the airways and became The Cure’s biggest known hit. At the time, the song just sounded like so much crap to me. It was light and breezy and what was the deal with dude’s make up? No thank you, I’ll go back to Ministry and Skinny Puppy.

Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, The Cure’s seventh studio album is an 18-track, 70-minute plus extravagance of pure theatre. The album that cracked America and the endlessness of international suburbia. An album that gave us excuses for a thousand hours spent on dizzy edges, beds made of flowers, daylight licking us into shape. 1987. A time when stereos were an extension of your aesthetic and were either enormous or cute and bulbous and Hubba Bubba purple.

An album recalling quiet streets bordered by creeks and bushland at dusk – spooky, dark and ethereal. A catalogue of swampy sounds and small town longing. Staring past a ragged tree line wanting something to land. A UFO. A boy. A jabberwocky. Retreating to my room. Lying flat on my back on my white, satin bedspread gazing at the ceiling when there was time for gazing lost to make believe and lands made up in my head that looked like film clips. Peak MTV - when all the songs were synonymous with the images.

Robert Smith staring out of TVs. He saw things, like us, that weren’t there. Eyeballing cameras or hiding in the shadows. Waking up and rubbing his eyes and wombling around; twisting himself into shapes in crumbling mansions, coffins lost at sea, clutching the edges of cliffs. Just Like Heaven when nothing was. The Cure were medicine like that. A soundtrack for what we already knew was coming. The end of spare time. The end of moments. The end of the world. Big bass. Soaring orchestral keyboards. Lonely lead guitars.

“Hey Robert, how about we release the title track to Boys Don’t Cry as the first single?”
“No, I think my weird lyrical essay on Albert Camus’ The Stranger would do better for us.” Hey, very few will argue against The Cure being one of the more bizarre outfits in alternative rock, what with that goddamn hair alone, which is why it’s fitting they’d begin their illustrious career with “Killing an Arab”. Then again, it’s exactly the type of song one might expect from a bunch of twentysomething art house rockers circa 1978, and while the subject matter has certainly gone over people’s heads throughout the years (especially moron Islamophobes), it’s a ballsy first chapter to one of the most influential outfits in the genre. –Michael Roffman

Robert Smith’s the Cure are one of most iconic British bands of the 1980s and 1990s, and hold a special place in the hearts of many music fans up and down the country. From the stark and intense nature of albums like 1982’s Pornography, through to the more flamboyant and playful records like Wish, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Disintegration - arguably the band’s masterpiece - Smith created some of the greatest alternative British music of his generation.

With “Just Like Heaven”, The Cure
became a band for everyone. Granted, the gothic overtones that had
initially haunted Robert Smith and co. admittedly began to dissipate
with their 1982 single “Let’s Go to Bed”, but “Just Like Heaven” was the
crossover hit they desperately needed. For starters, the song works on
every level — from the shower of synths to the ditzy piano notes to the
surfing guitar line that sounds like Dick Dale on LSD — but really it’s
all about the message. “You’re just like a dream,” Smith croons,
connecting to every single person who has ever walked away from someone
and thought, I might just die without them. Suddenly,
everything that made The Cure so relatable to the “freaks” and “creeps”
for all those years made sense to everyone else who either ignored them
or looked in from outside. And has there ever been a better opening
line? Good lord, the song really is just like a dream, one that you
never want to leave, which is why it’s best heard again and again and
again. That is, until you’re back to square one, which is why Smith went
on to make Disintegration. –Michael Roffman

The man behind some of the finest post-punk basslines ever committed to record, Simon Gallup joined The Cure in 1979 and recorded The Dark Trilogy of albums (Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography) before getting into a fist fight with Robert Smith and leaving the band for two years in 1982.

Since his return in 1984 they've been firm friends, something probably aided by his amazing lines on the likes of A Forest and Close To Me.

For many, The Cure of the 1980s was that of smudged lipstick and funny pop songs, but as albums Pornography and Disintegration showed, the reality was much darker...

On paper, at least, the 1980s seemed like a very rosy decade for The Cure. They had countless hit singles, made some great videos, and toured the world to much acclaim. However, if you ask your average man on the street what he thinks of The Cure in the 80s, chances are the songs that will immediately spring to mind are the fun pop of Why Can’t I Be You?, The Love Cats or cheeky teen anthem Let’s Go To Bed. Yet while these were monster chart smashes for Robert Smith and his boys from Crawley, West Sussex, it certainly wasn’t indicative of the material that they were recording at the beginning of the decade. Or at its end.

Contrary to popular belief, The Cure's music isn't all doom and gloom. The band has a deep and varied catalog.

Being a fan of The Cure requires a little bit of patience and a willingness for devotion. With 13 studio albums, five live albums, ten compilations and singles collections, and nearly 40 singles and EPs, the band has built a daunting discography for newcomers. And that was all achieved before 2009. Though The Cure has continually teased new music since the release of 2008's 4:13 Dream, unless they surprise-release something before the year's end, it'll have been a full decade without new music from the band. Yet in that time, they've still flexed their muscles, headlining major music festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Riot Fest, as well as playing several nights on their own at Madison Square Garden and Wembley Arena.

A hidden challenge when getting into The Cure is denouncing the stereotypes that have long followed the band. On the surface, a Cure record may come across like a wall-to-wall mope fest, and while there's truth in that, it's not the totality of the band's being. Though it should be obvious from the existence of songs like "Friday I'm in Love," "The Lovecats," or "Doing the Unstuck," there's a joyful giddiness undercutting much of frontman Robert Smith's work. Though his art may skew toward the self-serious—and the fact he resembles a goth grandma doesn't help—there's more to The Cure than what a cursory glance would reveal.

So how does one get into The Cure, a band who has a catalog that's not just vast, but full of worthwhile material? And how does one make sense of a discography that includes everything from goth to pop and post-punk to psych? The only way to understand The Cure is to embrace the twists and turns of their discography, knowing that if one part of their sound doesn't appeal to you, there's another half-dozen that may.

With all their success, it’s still difficult to describe the Cure to the uninitiated. To say ‘goth rock’ is just lazy and wrong. That won’t explain why fans range between moody teenagers, art-school graduates, and middle-aged yuppies, and it won’t explain songs like “The Love Cats.” Like a chameleon, bandleader and founder Robert Smith has taken the band from its post-punk minimalist beginnings to drug-fueled sturm and drang, eccentric synth-filled detours, psychedelic spirals, and dizzying dream pop. Then the band does it again for good measure. They’re rock, goth, punk, pop, and psychedelic disco with a fluid lineup that drops to one or balloons to six. The one constant is the only original member currently in the band: Robert Smith himself. Poet, cartoon, artist, and guitar hero, he’s the French-poetry-reading offspring of Nick Drake, Jimi Hendrix, and Pink Floyd in lipstick.

Dabbling in various bands as a teenager, Smith formed Easy Cure in 1977 in Crawley, England which later changed to the Cure and the lineup was pared down to a three-piece with Smith on guitar, Michael Dempsey on bass, and Lol Tolhurst on drums. Their debut, Three Imaginary Boys (1979) is an uneven affair but there are some gems, just as there are on the next twelve studio albums and the many compilations and live albums. And these gems aren’t necessarily the singles. The non-single album cuts are some of their most defining songs and get the loudest cheers when played at shows. You need to sit down and listen to whole albums to understand that. From claustrophobic nightmares to sweeping dreamscapes, there’s a little something for everyone. A die-hard Cure fan will say you need to own them all but here are 10 albums you really should spend time with.

"So... I'm selling a few guitars - to make room for new ones!
It's such a shame that the majority of my collection sit in cases, stored away. It's only when you bring them all out together that you remember how nice they are and how so many are charged with special memories.

Over the last couple of days I've been opening cases, dusting off old friends, playing songs related to specific guitars (the black Guild acoustic, for example, still tuned to play "If Only Tonight We Could Sleep") Enjoying a whole sweep of memories and emotions, recalling concerts and studio recordings.
Many of these guitars will stay with me, physically, as I can't part with them. But the rest will always be with me in other ways, having been part of my incredible journey with an amazing band. I shall be playing the ones that stay and they will be hung on the walls instead of left in their cases.

Auctioneers are Gardiner Houlgate. http://www.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk
Catalogue should be up in the next few weeks. Auction day Sept 14th.
Please note: these guitars are left handed!

Ok, to be clear, I have a lot of guitars and I'm just thinning my collection. All the ones that are precious to me are staying! This is not a forced sale, or some form of closure - just making some room! I'll probably buy more before the auction day arrives. (Got my eye on a Custom shop Strat in Daphne blue right now..!) "

Update (July 14th, 2017):

"The auction house needs photos. This has led me to searching through a lot of memorabilia. Hundreds of photos, hand written letters, concert passes (I threw so much away - to my regret!) and other band-related items. What an amazing life.
With this, and the guitars, it's been an unexpectedly emotional experience and it will influence my future choices, in some way, for sure.
And I have to acknowledge your part in this. I admit I started this page purely to advertise the fact I was playing again (briefly, with LAR) but the response and subsequent correspondence with people here has quite overwhelming. After years of being dismissive about my past career - something caused by a denial of deep wounding - I now embrace it with pride and joy.
I have a lot of you here to thank for that.
Have a great weekend!"

So wonderful to read this! We all love you, Perry! Don't you ever forget that. And you were always so kind and helpful to all of the fans. We will always remember and be so thankful for all you gave to us. Onstage and off. Cheers!

The rock 'n' roll memoir is not a genre typically known for its subtlety. The most popular memoirs tend to revel in the sex and the drugs and the ridiculousness of a given time in a band's life, anecdote after anecdote forcing the reader to wonder at the marvel of the human body's ability to survive horrendous and constant abuse. Despite the presence of these elements in Lol Tolhurst's memoir of the first ten years or so of The Cure, they are not the focus. Tolhurst is not interested in reveling in the excesses of the past; rather, he is shamed by them. By shifting the focus from what happened to who it happened to, Tolhurst crafts a memoir that is actually refreshing in its honesty and satisfying in its resolution.

The book is called Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys. The "imaginary boys" of the title are, of course, Tolhurst himself and Robert Smith, force of nature and frontman for The Cure. The book hinges on Tolhurst and Smith's relationship with one another, and how.

A few weeks back, when CONTACT released their infectious new single “Gravekeeper,” the legendary British radio host/producer, now holding it down in the desert at ALT AZ, dropped a quote that stopped us cold. “With their dark lyrics and illuminating melodies, CONTACT have the sound and ability to be this generation’s The Cure,” Camfield stated.

High praise, of course, and probably a bit unfair to the Boston trio.

But it got us thinking: CONTACT’s knack for melody and brooding lyrical tone are certainly from Robert Smith’s darkened pop galaxy, so what if we heard the iconic music of The Cure filtered through the CONTACT lens? With that, we asked them to take part in this year’s HaloVVeen show, Tuesday (October 31) at Hojoko in Boston, and the lads agreed.

“When we were asked to play this show as The Cure originally we had some trepidation as we are trying to finish a record and work on our own songs,” says CONTACT frontman Matt Rhoades. “However, I am so stoked we decided to do this as it has helped me look at my songs a little differently. We all studied The Cure songs and definitely are looking at their structures, synths, and chord progressions in a new way.”

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Yeah, it's been awhile, and given all of the emails over the last few weeks, I think I owe you an explanation.

It's been a rough year. Battles with depression, the blues, the blahs, whatever you want to call it, and a feeling of "none of this really matters, so why bother?". But you fight through all of that as best as you can, and I planned to start updating again this Autumn. Then my mom died in September and that absolutely shattered me.

I'm starting to put the pieces back together and life is returning to some sort of normalcy, so it's my intention to start updating here again very soon. Possibly as early as next week, but definitely before the end of November.

Friday, July 14, 2017

From Team Lol on Facebook:
"We've got some more great stuff happening in the US later this fall - Lol is very excited to be participating in this years Humanities Tennessee's Southern Festival of Books! We'll see you in Nashville this October! - Team Lol"

Oct. 13th, 2017 - Nashville, TN (Southern Festival of Books)
The festival is free and open to the public. No advance registration or tickets are required. All seating is on a first-come basis.

"Robert
Smith of the Cure was one of the first artists who provided a design
for Designers against AIDS to be used on tees, hoodies and sweaters to
raise funds for our NGO. This long sleeved tee/sweater, that can be
worn by both women and men, has Robert's illustration on the back, which
says 'Whatever Words I Say, I Will Always Love You' and depicts him
with his wife.As is true for all our tees, it's made Fair Trade from
organic cotton by Sense Organics in India and every cent (!) of the
sales proceeds will benefit our work.Photos by Kiran Gidda www.kirangidda.com" You can buy the shirt at Tictail. Thanks, @thecureCZ.